One of the clearest shifts happening inside production is the collapse of the traditional, linear process. Concept. Prep. Shoot. Post. That model is being replaced by something much messier and much more realistic.
Today, some shots are created even before the call sheet is put together, while others filmed on set are nowhere near finished until late-stage post. Execution is no longer tied to a single moment. It is a non-linear, iterative flow, often involving AI. And that throws people off. Clients, and sometimes agencies, lose sight of the final vision because they are not used to, or familiar with the steps in between. They struggle to imagine how it all comes together.
This is where strong creative direction becomes essential. You need someone steering the ship, aligning the agency and the production team, filtering out noise, and protecting the end result from dilution. Meanwhile, production models are under more pressure than ever. Budgets are tighter. Expectations are higher. Clients want more formats, more versions, and more content overall, all without sacrificing quality. At the same time, agencies are pushing for bolder ideas that stand out. But bold creative means little if the model behind it cannot support the scale or speed required.
The industry needs to adapt quickly, flexibly, and without ego.
This lack of adaptability often starts at the briefing stage. Too many projects begin with a pre-decided format instead of a clearly defined objective. Clients rush into execution before asking the essential question: what problem are we solving? Is it brand awareness? Launching something new? Driving trial? Market adoption? If the strategy is unclear at the start, the creative will always drift off course.
There is also a significant knowledge gap around how content is actually made. Just two days ago, I had a conversation with the CEO of an international FMCG brand who asked me why directors are so expensive. I explained that while they are paid for the shoot days, their work spans across pre-production, development, production and post. In reality, their fee is spread across many days, weeks or even months of involvement. That explanation created more understanding of the process, but it also highlighted a bigger truth: many people in key positions still do not fully grasp how production actually works. I’m not trying to say that client and agency need to be fluent in production lingo, but understanding the process a little better might help with setting expectations. At Studio Gravy, I help brands build that creative confidence, not just by guiding production, but by helping them make smarter, sharper creative decisions across the board, early on in the process. A strong foundation will eventually create stronger work.
But it is also up to all of us, the production industry, to help and educate our partners in this process. Don’t assume they know everything about our (often technical) craft. Assumption is the mother of all fuckups.
And it is not just about understanding production. It is about understanding content itself. Many brands still treat content like a sequence of isolated campaigns. But content today is not episodic. It is ongoing. It needs to be structured like a system, not a series of one-offs.
Very few brands have mastered this, because it takes great care and skill to safeguard. Those that do treat their visual language like a brand asset. Everyone else is stuck reacting. With the tools we have today, from templated asset builders to visual management systems, there is no excuse not to get this right. Look at how Coca Cola and Adobe are partnering on their visual ecosystem in combination with powerful Gen-AI tools like Firefly.
What we are also seeing is a new kind of tempo among the most progressive brands. Speed has become a differentiator. These brands move fast. They respond to cultural tension in real time. They jump on trends without losing their voice. We’ve all seen the real story develop in the comments. But speed alone is not the win. The best work moves fast and says something true. A good example of this is Heineken’s “The Social Off Socials” campaign, created by Le Pub.
Instead of flooding social media with more noise, they challenged overuse of it altogether. The message was simple: put your phone down and connect in real life. The campaign did not just echo Heineken’s global message around social connection. It embodied it. The execution was sharp. They used popular, time-sensitive memes in their original formats, without over-branding or trying to polish them into something else. The memes felt natural to the platforms. They respected the language of the internet and trusted the audience to understand them. Convincing a client to approve this kind of work can be especially challenging to go ahead with this, when they might not connect or identify with the generation that understands this content, at all.
This is where today’s content wins. Not just in having something to say, but in knowing how to say it without breaking the spell. Heineken showed that it is possible to move relatively fast, join the conversation, and still protect long-term brand meaning. But that takes structure, not just instinct. You need internal systems that allow for speed, clear creative boundaries, and people close enough to the culture to execute with taste. When timing and trust come together, content becomes both timely and timeless.
The creator economy reinforces this shift. Creator-led media is no longer an add-on. It is becoming central to how brands show up. Cannes 2025 was clearly creator-led, as AdAge put it. The prominence of creator marketing at a festival long dominated by polished agency work marks a cultural shift in how the industry views influence and storytelling. What once lived on the fringes is now front and center, with brands embracing creators not just as media channels, but as creative collaborators who help shape relevance in real time.
But many agencies still want creator partnerships to behave like traditional productions – clean, scripted, approved. That misses the point. Creator content works because of its imperfection, its timing, and its cultural fit or authenticity. It needs guidance, not control. The brands who get this right are starting to look a lot more relevant than the ones who don’t.
The content landscape is shifting in every direction. Technology, culture, workflows, expectations. What matters now is not who has the biggest campaign. It is who can move with clarity, with confidence, and with cultural fluency, all at once. The brands that succeed will be the ones willing to adapt faster, collaborate smarter, and embrace the messy, human side of content.
If you want to dive deeper into the changing production landscape definitely check our freshly released report!
2025 Food Content Evolution Playbook.
Jordy van Meer: Founder of StudioGravy.co, creative director and strategic consultant for global F&B brands and production houses. Over two decades shaping campaigns for global FMCG brands like Nestlé, Unilever, Kraft Heinz, Diageo and blending powerful storytelling with strategic precision to create work that connects and performs.
